The Credit Cooperative System in Finland

Abstract

The cooperative movement developed in rural areas at the end of the nineteenth century to ease access to credit by the poorest segments of the population. The founding of a national confederation in 1899 (Pellervo-Suera) gave way to the evolution of the Finnish cooperative system: two years later, the confederation contributed to the approval of the first law on cooperatives, which was substantially amended in 1954 and subsequently modified in 1981 and in 2001. The first law was simply a literal translation of the German law on cooperatives; it was significantly supported by Hans Gebhard, whose ideas were similar to those of Friedrich Wilhem Raiffeisen. Gebhard became the pioneer of the Finnish cooperation: thanks to his action, a central institution for the development of credit cooperatives (Okobank) was established in 1902. From a legal point of view, cooperative banks were launched as Public Limited Companies to ensure they could face the administrative practices of the credit sector, notwithstanding their little experience.